Kabul: A United Nations agency in Afghanistan plans to stop publishing photographs on its website to highlight the plight of Afghan women ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, a UN official said yesterday. The move aims to bring attention to the fear many Afghan women have of the potential consequences of appearing in public or having their photographs published, said Rob Few, chief of communications for the UN Development Program in Kabul. Photographs already on the UNDP’s Afghanistan website would be blacked out starting yesterday, and replaced with the hashtag #WhereAreTheWomen, few said.

Original captions would remain, so visitors to the site know what they are missing, and no new photographs would be posted, he said.